


Hindsight

by YourFavoriteRobot



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-09
Updated: 2011-09-09
Packaged: 2017-10-23 13:52:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/251021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YourFavoriteRobot/pseuds/YourFavoriteRobot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor and River run into a younger Doctor and the Master.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hindsight

As far as dates went it wasn’t the most impressive, but there was a certain ironic charm to being with a man who could take you anywhere in time and space, and choosing to go to a little dive outside of the Andromeda fulling station. It was, to the Doctor’s credit, actually much nicer inside than out, and the Doctor assured her that it was the only good place to get a hallon berry fizz this side of Peladon.

Just as the promised drinks were set before them, she saw the Doctor pale.

“Oh no,” the Doctor groaned when his eyes fell on a man at the bar, tall, blond and sporting a charmingly anachronistic beige frock coat. River knew in an instant at whom she was looking.

“Oh yes.” She grinned. This was a treat. River had always wanted to see one of the Doctor’s younger forms. She imagined it would be something like looking though someone’s old school photos, only with even more potent embarrassment.

She felt certain she was about to be proved right when she noticed a second man in possession of a lot of black velvet and a beard that she was sure he thought was very menacing. He set a drink before the Doctor and sat himself down beside him, very close beside him. The chemistry between them was painfully obvious, even while the young Doctor made a show of being put out at his presence. The pretence was dropped in moment and they fell into comfortable conversation.

“Oh, he is handsome,” River smirked at her Doctor.

“Is he? I didn’t notice.” Doctor pointedly didn’t look at the pair.

“Your memory must be going, sweetie, is obvious that you noticed him at one point,” she teased.

The Doctor glanced at the couple “Maybe. Possibly. Who can tell, really. Regeneration rattles things up. It’s like putting your whole brain on spin cycle—you’re bound to lose a few socks.”

“Is it really? Because of course I have no frame of reference.”

“Yes, all right, fair point. But we should leave. Crossing your own timeline is always sticky, but in this case it could be far worse.” The Doctor spun up, out of and around his chair, urging her to do the same (though possibly with less spinning).

River hesitated, wanting to see more of this young Doctor, a Time Lord so clearly besotted with his companion. He was still guarded but not as she knew the Doctor to be now. When he smiled it was nothing shallow or fleeting. He smiled all the way through, down to his toes and back up again. It lit up his face and it shone brilliant in his eyes, unclouded by doubt or fear. There was an innocence to him that almost broke her heart to see.

His whole attention was leveled on his companion and it never wavered. He didn’t watch the door or other patrons. The man in velvet held him in an inescapable gravity. And the Doctor in turn held him just as strongly. It looked as though each of them made up the whole of the other’s universe.

The man in velvet said something River couldn’t hear, and the young Doctor laughed, brightly and kissed the man softly on the corner of the mouth.

“You look happy,” she said solemnly to her Doctor. Whoever this man was, he was part of the Doctor’s past, some irretrievable happiness from a simpler time. Knowing that he had lost something so dear made her heart ache for the Doctor.

“I was. I wish I had known how happy I was at the time,” the Doctor said quietly, starring at the couple, at himself, his eyes unreadable but looking so very old.

“Hindsight is...”

“Irrelevant to the likes of us,” the Doctor broke in with great energy. “Rule number 73. You never do write these down. Where is your head, River Song?”

She looked at him for a moment, through the forced brightness. He hid it so well. Even from himself, most days. She forced herself to smile as well and took his arm. “Haven’t a clue sweetie. Let’s see if we can find it.”

“That is the best suggestion I’ve heard all century.” They exited. But before pushing out the door, River spared a glance over her shoulder for the couple at the bar, still smiling at each other as they stood to leave, hand in hand, walking slowly for they door as though they had all the time in the universe.


End file.
